


In Faded Sunlight

by masadora



Category: IDOLiSH7 (Video Game)
Genre: Childhood, Gen, Hospitals, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-19 07:35:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20327452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/masadora/pseuds/masadora
Summary: When it came to Riku, Tenn had always had a lot of reasons to worry. He just never expected "my little brother can see ghosts" to become be one of them.And when it came to ghosts......Aren't they drawn to people that are close to death?





	In Faded Sunlight

It was late afternoon, and the sun was beginning to set. Their school’s dance club would be wrapping up their practice right now. Not that he knew what moves they were working on – he hadn’t attended their after-school meetings in a while.

Not since…

“Tenn-nii, how do you do this question?”

Wrenching his gaze away from the window, Tenn turned back to his little brother. “Which one? Let me see.”

“Number twenty-nine!”

“Hmm…okay, if you look at this example here…”

It couldn’t have been comfortable to do their schoolwork from the hospital bed, but Riku never complained as he picked his way through the papers Tenn brought back for him. He didn’t want to fall too far behind, Riku had said. He wanted to fit in with everyone once he was better again.

And Tenn was more than happy to help, even if it meant putting all his other commitments on hold. He walked Riku through meticulously-taken notes, explaining the problem at every step.

“So then–!”

“Yes, good job!”

A nice, red checkmark was placed next to the question, and Tenn rewarded him with a gentle ruffle to his hair. “Are you okay to keep going, or should we stop here for today?”

Riku hesitated. There was still a lot of questions to go, as an unavoidable side-effect to having missed school for several weeks on end. But Tenn could see that he was starting to run out of steam, too. Riku got tired easily, these days.

“How about we take a break?” he suggested. “And I’ll go buy you a snack.”

“Okay,” Riku perked up. “Can I have a cookie?”

“Of course.”

The cookie Riku probably wanted was chocolate, but that would be way too sweet. Their mom always said that overly-sweet things weren’t good for him. Tenn squinted at the vending machine, deliberating between the healthier-looking choices before finally picking one with dried fruits. He hurried back to Riku’s room.

The door was slightly ajar, just the way he left it ten minutes ago. But now he could hear voices inside – did a nurse come in while he was gone?

“–So I don’t have to take make-up classes.”

There’s a pause, but no response.

“I know, right? Tenn-nii’s smart, and he’s really good at explaining things!”

Riku’s voice again. Curiously, Tenn pushed the door open a little more and peered through the crack. There was Riku, sitting up on the hospital bed…

…And no one else. The rest of the room was empty.

Taken by surprise, Tenn’s shoulder bumped against the door and it abruptly swung open. Riku jumped, turning towards the entrance with a start.

“T-Tenn-nii!”

“…I’m back.” Sheepishly, Tenn held up the cookie. He couldn’t help but sneak another glance around the room though, double-checking only to find nothing there. It feels like the room had gotten colder, though. “Were you…talking to someone?”

“Eh?” Riku blinked at him. “She’s right there.”

“Who’s right there?”

“Ah– we just met, I forgot to ask for her name! Sorry, what is your…?”

Astonished, Tenn watched as Riku proceeded to turn to the empty space beside him and apologize, then pause and nod to the sound of nothing at all.

“I see. My name is Riku, it’s nice to meet you too! And that’s my big brother, Tenn-nii!”

“…Who are you talking to?”

“What do you mean?” Riku blinked, raising a hand to pat at the air. “See–”

“Riku, what are you _doing?_” Tenn interrupted, unable to help himself. “There’s no one there!”

“But…” a look of honest confusion crossed Riku’s face, tinged with distress. “Tenn-nii, look, she’s–”

He shivered, then doubled over and began to cough. Dropping the cookie onto the nightstand, Tenn immediately dashed to his side and wrapped the blankets around Riku’s shoulders.

“Shhh, calm down, deep breaths,” he whispered. “I’m sorry I raised my voice.”

“Tenn-nii,” Riku wheezed out. “I wasn’t lying, she really–”

“I know,” Tenn pulled the blankets a little tighter. “It’s okay, Riku. I believe you.”

He didn’t, not really. But at that moment, Tenn would have said anything to stop Riku from working himself up to another attack.

* * *

As it turned out, that wasn’t even the first time Riku had been found talking to an empty room.

“I’ve heard him talk to himself, but lots of children have imaginary friends – it’s nothing to worry about, Tenn-kun,” the nurse told him. “Riku-kun probably just does it to occupy himself when he’s waiting for you.”

“But…”

Now that Tenn made sure to stop by the door and listen before knocking on his visits, he could often hear Riku chattering away inside with no hint of the other person’s response – and when he pushed the door open, the room would always be empty. Was it really just a case of imaginary friends?

“He really seemed to be talking to someone,” Tenn said. “More than one person. A week ago it was ‘Himura-san,’ then yesterday it was ‘Nakamura-san,’ and–”

The nurse stilled. Tenn stopped speaking, too.

“Is something wrong?”

“No,” the nurse said quickly, then frowned. “No, I just…huh, that’s strange…”

“What is?”

She looked down at Tenn’s anxious face. “It’s nothing bad, Tenn-kun. We had…we had a patient named Himura-san on the same floor a little while ago. Nakamura-san, too. I had no idea that Riku-kun ever got to meet them, before...”

“Before?”

“Well, they’ve…been relocated from our hospital.”

The nurse tried to be tactful. But Tenn could read between the lines of her hesitant tone, and the ashen look on her face.

These people had passed away.

* * *

There’s something their grandmother used to say.

_Spirits are always drawn to others like them – people who are close to death_.

And sometimes, on nights when Riku had to sleep with an oxygen mask over his face, much too pale and completely still save for his shallow breathes fogging up the plastic, Tenn thought that this was probably what ‘close to death’ looked like.

It terrified him.

“Leave him alone,” he whispered, gripping at Riku’s hand tightly as if to keep him there through sheer force of will. “Leave Riku alone. You can’t have him.”

There’s no response. He could never sense the spirits, no matter how hard he tried.

And Tenn didn’t know how to protect Riku from a threat he couldn’t see.

* * *

“What are you reading, Tenn-kun?”

The seat beside Tenn was empty – had been empty for a month and counting, now, as yet another reminder of Riku’s absence. One of his classmates plopped down next to him, and peered at his book cover.

“_For_ _Those Departed_…I didn’t know you were into ghosts!”

_I’m not_, Tenn wanted to say. He plasters a smile onto his face.

“It’s a bit of a passing interest.”

Salt was the oldest, most traditional trick in the book. Tenn bought a gigantic bag of it with his allowance, then waited until Riku had fallen asleep to sprinkle it around his hospital room. He tried to be considerate with where he put it – the hospital had to be kept clean, after all – and put it around the corners of the room, where it won’t make a mess. He left a trail under Riku’s bed as well, just barely out of sight beneath the plain bedsheets.

The entrance was much too visible, but that’s the most important part. So he put it around the doorway, too.

“Tenn-nii…?”

A tired, bleary voice. It seemed that Riku had woken up again. Tenn hurried back to his side, hiding the bag of salt behind his back. “I’m here, Riku.”

“What time is it?”

“Five-thirty. You can go back to sleep if you want.”

“I don’t wanna,” Riku pouted, pushing himself to sit up. “It’s not late yet. Nobody else goes to sleep at this time.”

It wasn’t uncommon for Riku to take naps throughout the day like this, though – sometimes, he was so tired that all he wanted to do was sleep. Tenn’s glad that today was not one of those days.

“As long as you’re not pushing yourself.”

He dropped the salt into his backpack, poured out a cup of warm water from his thermos, and waited for Riku to drink it before bending down and quickly pulling the zipper of his bag shut.

“Should I read you a story? Here, I’ve brought some new books – you can pick one.”

* * *

Of course, the salt around the doorway was gone by the next day. Once nobody was looking, Tenn sprinkled some more, and tried not to feel guilty when he heard one of the nurses complain about the mysterious mess on the floor.

_I’m sorry, but it’s for Riku…once he’s not in danger anymore, I’ll clean it up, I promise._

It’s almost become a habit to stop outside of Riku’s room and listen before he went in. Tenn could see the circle of salt he’d left on the floor from yesterday.

He could also hear Riku’s voice, chattering on as he so often did.

“–Fold it like this? Wait, like this?”

No other voices, as usual. None that Tenn could hear.

“Wow, you’re right! This is perfect!”

Tenn’s heard enough. He knocked on the door, and pushed it open. “Riku, it’s me.”

His twin seems to be in a good mood today. Sitting upright in bed, Riku beamed at him and immediately held up his hands. “Tenn-nii, hi! Look what I made!”

A clumsily-folded paper crane sat at the center of his palm. Tenn ran a finger over its fragile wings.

“It looks wonderful,” Tenn smiled at him. “I don’t even know how to fold a crane.”

Riku brightened even more, puffing out his chest in pride. “Do you want me to show you?”

“I’d like that.”

It’s a pleasant afternoon, spent over piles of origami paper as Riku walked him through the steps of a perfect crane. Before long, the two of them had folded a small, colourful display scattered across the sterile-white sheets of the hospital bed.

“You’re a great teacher, Riku.”

The younger twin grins again, delighted at the praise. “I can’t take all the credit. The origami book was hard to follow, so Ito-san was the one who showed me.”

He held out a hand, as if gesturing towards someone. Tenn followed his gaze to the empty foot of his bed. A shiver ran down his spine.

“Ito-san likes to…_oh_…”

It seemed that Riku had caught on, too. He looked towards Tenn, then the space in the air, and his shoulders slumped. “You can’t see him, either.”

Silently, Tenn shook his head.

“Well…it’s okay, I mean,” Riku fumbled, dropping his crane. “I wish I could introduce the two of you! I can still pass messages. But if you can’t see him, it can’t be helped.”

Tenn doesn’t _want_ to talk to the ghost. “Riku, you know that he must be…”

“A spirit? Yeah.”

“You knew,” Tenn said helplessly. He’d let go of his crane as well, reaching over to grab both of Riku’s hands and locking their fingers tightly together. “You…”

_You shouldn’t talk to them anymore. They’re dangerous. Who knows what they might do to you when I’m not around?_

But the ghost was _right there_, and Tenn didn’t want to risk agitating it. It might be his imagination, but suddenly the room felt chilly. He gripped Riku’s hand a little tighter.

Riku squeezed back. “It’s okay, Tenn-nii. Ito-san is really nice.”

“Ito-san, what do you…erm,” it felt too awkward to address the ghost directly, after all. Tenn turned back to Riku. “What does he talk to you about?”

“His school, his family, that kind of stuff.”

“Does he talk to others, too?”

“No, he’s mostly been hanging around my room,” Riku said. Then he paused, cocking his head and nodding at the thin air. “He says I’m the only person that’s been able to see him so far. It’s not much fun being around other people when they don’t know he’s there.”

“I…suppose that’s true.”

Riku squeezed his hand again. “He talks to me when you’re not here. I’m in good company!”

Tenn tried to smile back, his expression wobbly around the edges.

* * *

He dug through the library for other books, and they piled up around his desk at home. Tenn copied down the writing on intricate paper talismans, and stashed it around Riku’s room where he wouldn’t see. He drew the so-called exorcism symbols. Out of desperation, he even memorized the _kuji-in_ mantra from a tv drama and recited it while Riku’s sleeping.

It’s no use. The spirits wouldn’t leave him alone.

On top of that, Riku’s condition had worsened. Tenn continued to take notes for him and bring in their schoolwork, but Riku no longer had the energy to work through them at the pace he did before. The coughing fits left him wheezing for breath. He fell asleep more and more often, napping through the afternoons while Tenn sat beside him and held tightly onto his hand.

The weather outside is awful, but the atmosphere inside the hospital made Tenn feel worse. Were the ghosts still here because they could sense that Riku had gotten closer to them? Or…

…He didn’t want to think about it.

Another common point of appeasement were offerings, of course. But the extra fruits and snacks that he left on Riku’s nightstand was always untouched. Tenn was running out of ideas, and he didn’t know _what_ to do.

“I don’t wanna eat hospital food anymore, Tenn-nii!” Riku complained one day. “It’s always the same thing, over and over.”

“Then I’ll get you something from home,” Tenn said. “What would you like?”

Riku’s answer came lightning-fast. “I want mom’s omurice!”

Tenn wanted it, too. Their parents had been so busy at the club, it’s actually been a while since they’ve been able to sit down for a home-made meal. Convenience-store bread got old after a while. He missed his mother’s cooking.

Riku must miss it more, though.

“I’ll bring some for you tomorrow,” Tenn told him.

Their mother had dark shadows under her eyes, and Tenn was reluctant to make another request on top of everything she had to deal with already. Still, he couldn’t help but feel excited as he drew on the smiley faces in ketchup, and wrapped two neat bentos for him and Riku to eat together.

One of the nurses waved at him. “Here to see Riku-kun again?”

Tenn nodded. “I brought him food from home.”

“He told me about that! Riku-kun’s been looking forward to it all day,” the nurse grinned at him, and patted him on the head. “Don’t stay too late, okay? It gets dark early these days.”

“Okay!”

Tenn hurried on with a spring in his step. He rushed down the hospital corridor–

–And skidded to a stop in front of Riku’s room, to the sound of a single person talking.

“Riku, I’m here.”

The room was empty, of course. Riku waved at him from his bed, taking care to keep his other arm with the IV perfectly still.

“Tenn-nii!” he cheered, zeroing in on the bundle in Tenn’s arms. “Is that omurice?”

“Sure is. Mom made it especially for us.”

“I can’t wait,” Riku gushed, watching eagerly as Tenn unwrapped it and showed him the ketchup doodles. “I woke up just a little while ago, you know? It’s really good timing!”

_A little while ago?_ It was six-fifty now…so he had slept through most of the afternoon again. The doctors have given him a new kind of medicine, but he’s still on the IV.

Suddenly, Tenn didn’t feel so hungry anymore. He handed Riku his spoon, and sat down.

Riku dug into his meal, making happy little sounds as he did so. “Aren’t you gonna eat yours, Tenn-nii?” he asked around a full mouth.

“I had a snack at school, so I’ll eat it later.” The lie flowed smoothly from Tenn’s lips.

Riku finished his meal in record time, and Tenn helped him put the empty box aside. His own was still untouched.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Riku asked again.

“I will, a little later.”

“Okay.” Riku flopped back down onto the bed. With the initial moment of excitement over, his eyelids fluttered and he began to yawn – whatever burst of energy he had was gone now. “Tenn-nii, can you read me a story?”

“Of course,” Tenn picked up the book on the nightstand. “Which one would you like?”

He didn’t even make it onto the third page before Riku’s breath evened out – he had fallen asleep again. Tenn closed the book, and set it aside.

His food was cold, now. The room felt cold, too.

Tenn moved to tuck the blankets a little tighter around Riku. He was so pale, only the slow rise and fall of his chest indicated any sign of life at all.

How long until Riku got better?

Was he _going_ to get better?

There’s a tell-tale gust of cold wind. Tenn still couldn’t see any spirits, but he’d gotten better at picking up other signs of their presence.

“You’re here, right?” he whispered. “Ito-san…or someone else?”

If there was a response, it’s nothing he could hear. After a moment’s hesitation, Tenn removed the cover from his bento, and nudged at his untouched omurice.

“I didn’t eat it, so you can have it. Just…” he trailed off, throat feeling tight. “Please. Don’t take my little brother away.”

Hot, salty tears dripped from his cheeks onto the bedsheets below. Tenn put his head down on the blankets and curled inwards on himself, stifling the sound of his quiet sobs.

* * *

His back ached. His arms felt numb. What position had he fallen asleep in last night?

Blearily, Tenn cracked his eyes open – and almost shot out of his chair when he came face-to-face with a pair of bright crimson ones, barely two inches away.

“R-Riku!”

“Good morning, Tenn-nii!” Riku chirped, smiling widely as he curls their fingers loosely around each other’s. It’s early in the morning and there’s no telling how long he’d been awake, but he seemed wholly content to lie there and watch Tenn sleep. With his free hand, he patted at an empty spot on his bed. “Wanna move up here? It’ll be comfier.”

There’s some colour on Riku’s cheeks this time. His touch was pleasantly warm.

“No, I…I’m awake now.”

“Are you sure?” Riku gestured at his (no doubt red-rimmed) eyes. “You look really tired.”

“It’s fine.” Tenn glanced out the window, and let out a groan. “Morning already...? I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

“I was surprised, too,” Riku giggled. “But it was kind of nice to wake up and see you here. It makes me feel like we’re back home again. Also, look!”

He held up his left hand. The IV drip was gone.

“Ta-dah! The nurse came in and removed it while you were still asleep – we tried to be _really_ quiet, so we wouldn’t wake you. She said I’m well enough to have it taken out.”

Tenn’s heart leap. “That’s great! If you’re feeling better, then–”

Abruptly, he stopped. Out of the corner of his eye, Tenn caught sight of his bento box – its lid was closed, now. With shaking hands, he pried it open.

It was empty, and meticulously cleaned.

“Riku,” he choked out. “You didn’t eat this, did you?”

“Isn’t that one yours?” Riku blinked. “Tenn-nii, didn’t you eat it last night?”

Tenn glanced around the room.

“…Yeah,” he said. “I did. Sorry, I guess I’m still half-asleep.”

It might just be his imagination, but the room felt a little warmer than before.

Maybe he can take the salt and talismans home today.

**Author's Note:**

> Vaguely inspired by the tidbit of trivia that Tenn's canonly **[afraid of ghosts](https://osakaso5.tumblr.com/post/162435994748/gaku-yaotome-i7-roman-rabbit-chat-part-3-lets)**. I always thought that his fear of ghosts may have a connection to Riku's proximity with them, and this fic was the result. 
> 
> It was my pleasure to participate in the i7 flashbang this year with my partner **[@cotton_thistle](https://twitter.com/cotton_thistle/status/1163904899395940352)**. Please check out her twitter and her beautiful art! Of course, I'm also on twitter **[@redigitizing](https://twitter.com/redigitizing)** <3


End file.
